PlaySmart

Also: With you every step of the play · The Sports Bettors Draft

“With you every step of the play”

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation's responsible gambling brand, launched in February 2016 to replace 'It Pays To Know', and its October 2024 mass campaign by TBWA\Canada built around a 'PlaySmart Advisor' character who uses humour to steer high-risk players to budget setting, custom play limits and play breaks, with a sports bettor strand timed to the start of the major sports seasons.

Years: 2016
Country: Canada
Topic: Gambling
Asks people to: Start Stop
Strategy: Humor Mascot Simple instruction
Channel: Social (paid)TV Website
Audience: Adults
Ontario players, with ads aimed at high-risk players and sports bettors.

Evidence

NoneUnknown

No evaluation found.

Sponsor (who paid)

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) Industry, creator and funder (provincial crown gambling operator)

Credits (who made it)

TBWA\Canada Creative, 2024-2025 source
EssenceMediacom Media, 2024-2025 source
Merchant Production, 2024 source

Sources

PlaySmart (Ads of the World, OLG / TBWA\Canada, Oct 2024) archive · 2024
OLG 2015-16 annual report (PlaySmart launch, Feb 2016) sponsor

Research notes

Drafted by Claude (Claude Code) on 2026-10-28 for #130 from the sources listed; unreviewed, including the cardSummary. Industry-sponsored: OLG is a provincial crown corporation that sells lottery and casino gambling and runs PlaySmart as its responsible gambling programme. The February 2016 launch date is from a search-result summary of OLG's report (not opened). The 2024 campaign ran on TV, digital, social and DAZN until February (2025). targetBehavior 'start' stands for 'start using limit tools'.

Record cases/ca-on-olg-playsmart.json, updated 2026-10-28· Link to this campaign